UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor: Investigate the Possibility that Israel is Committing the Crime of Genocide Against the Palestinian People

The plaintiffs, both Palestinian nationals and Palestinian Americans, claim the defendants, pro-Israeli American individuals and entities, are conspiring to expel all non-Jews from territory whose sovereignty is in dispute. They sued in federal district court, pressing four claims: (1) civil conspiracy, (2) genocide and other war crimes, (3) aiding and abetting genocide and other war crimes and (4) trespass. Concluding that all four claims raise nonjusticiable political questions, the district court dismissed the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. We now reverse.

… the second potential political question presented—are Israeli settlers committing genocide—is a purely legal issue… Genocide has a legal definition. See United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide art. 2, Dec. 9, 1948, 78 U.N.T.S. 277, 280 (defining genocide, in part, as “[k]illing members of [a national, ethnic, racial or religious group]” “with intent to destroy [the group], in whole or in part”). Thus… by incorporating the law of nations and the definitions included therein—provides a judicially manageable standard to determine whether Israeli settlers are committing genocide… We are well able… to apply the standards enunciated by the Supreme Court to the facts of this case.

222. All Defendants herein had to know the type of heinous criminal activity being engaged in by armed and aggressive settlers and IDF/G4S personnel in the OPT, for any number of reasons. As early as 1990, ethnic cleansing, wanton property destruction, heavy civilian casualties, incarceration, and torture of political prisoners as well as children, were all common knowledge in Israel. Haaretz articles and editorials repeatedly reported on and criticized these criminal activities and settlement expansion. That activity, i.e., ill treatment and violent subjugation of a civilian population, of course, constitutes classic war crimes under the Nuremberg Principles and the U.S. War Crimes Statute. It also violates the UN Genocide Convention.